1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to ventilation strips used in residential housing construction, and more particularly to a ventilation strip for installation in a soffit board installed under the eaves of a home.
2. Description of Related Art
Ventilation strips have been used in the prior art to close the space within or between soffit boards. The state of the art is Tamlyn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,446 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,502, which teach ventilation strips that are adapted to be positioned between a pair of soffit boards in the construction of residential housing. The ventilation strips include a vent with perforations, and two U-shaped channels for receiving the edges of the soffit boards. During installation, the vent is temporarily flexed or “bowed” to enable the edges of the soffit boards to be inserted into the U-shaped channels. The perforations through the vent allow air ventilation through the soffit boards. The above-described references are hereby incorporated by reference in full.
There are disadvantages, however, to the prior art ventilation strips that rely on bowing the ventilation strip to engage the U-shaped channels with the soffit boards. The required step of bowing the ventilation strip makes this style of ventilation strip difficult to install. It also suffers from lack of adaptability, with each U-channel only being able to engage a soffit board of a single thickness. This makes it necessary for retailers to carry a large inventory of ventilation strips, a different model of the ventilation strips for each thickness of soffit board commonly used.
The prior art does not teach a ventilation strip that includes a pair of board engaging elements that each include board engaging notches or fingers that may engage edges of different soffit boards of a plurality of thicknesses. The board engaging elements may also be installed without requiring the bowing of the ventilation strip. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.